In collaboration with Village Cinemas, we proudly present a series of screenings of opera and ballet productions, brought to cinema audiences in Greece and across the world from the Royal Opera House in London.
Audiences will have the opportunity to enjoy a selection of this season’s productions from the stage of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, including world-renowned operas such as Il Trovatore and Madama Butterfly, as well as a new production of Otello.
Find out more about the programme highlights on the Royal Opera House website.
La Traviata
8 & 12 March 2019, 20.30
Richard Eyre’s beautiful production provides the perfect setting for Verdi’s opera about a courtesan who sacrifices all for love.
Verdi based La Traviata on Alexandre Dumas fils’s novel and play La Dame aux Camélias, inspired by the life and death of the real Parisian courtesan Marie Duplessis. Verdi offered a more complex and sympathetic portrayal of his heroine than Dumas, highlighting Violetta’s noble nature and her devotion to Alfredo. La Traviata had an initially lukewarm reception, but after Verdi revised the work in 1854 it became enormously successful. It is currently the most performed opera in the world, and the role of Violetta a favourite for many star sopranos.
Approximate running time: three hours and thirty five minutes including two intervals. Sung in Italian with English surtitles.
The Queen of Spades
22 & 26 February 2019, 20.30
Tchaikovsky’s most ambitious opera contains some of his greatest music and is a powerful study of destructive obsession.
The penniless soldier Gherman has fallen in love with Liza. Gherman learns that Liza’s grandmother the Countess knows a winning three-card formula. Gherman determines to wrest the secret from the Countess, gain a fortune through gambling and marry Liza.
The Queen of Spades is based it on a short story by Alexander Pushkin, one of Tchaikovsky’s favourite writers. He and his brother Modest (his co-librettist) dramatically altered Pushkin’s plot, turning Gherman from a cynical opportunist into an ardent lover and Liza into a tragic figure.
Approximate running time: three hours and thirty minutes including an interval. Sung in Russian with English surtitles.
Die Walküre
7 December (20.00) & 11 December (20.30) 2018
Die Walküre is the second work of Richard Wagner’s four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. It has become the most performed opera of the cycle, loved and admired for its nuanced and intelligent exploration of complex family entanglements, expressed through music of astonishing power.
During a storm, Sieglinde gives shelter to a wounded stranger. They find themselves drawn to each other. He is Siegmund, the twin from whom Sieglinde was separated in childhood. Unknown to them, their father is Wotan, the most powerful of the gods. Through Siegmund, Wotan hopes to retrieve a gold ring of ultimate power that he cannot take himself.
Approximate running time five hours, including two intervals. Sung in German with English surtitles.
Mayerling
9 & 13 November 2018, 20.30
Mayerling is based on the true story of the deaths of Crown Prince Rudolf and his teenage mistress Mary Vetsera in 1889. This dark and intense ballet was created for The Royal Ballet in 1978 and is regarded by many as among Kenneth MacMillan’s finest works. Orchestrated and arranged by John Lanchbery, the music of Franz Liszt sweeps the story to its intense conclusion, and sumptuous designs by Nicholas Georgiadis bring to life the formal, oppressive world of the Austro-Hungarian court.
Swan Lake
6 July 2018, 20.30
Screenings of performances of classical works continue at Village Cinemas as part of the collaboration with the Royal Opera House with a new production of Tchaikovsky’s magnificent classical ballet Swan Lake. Production and additional choreography by Liam Scarlett in collaboration with designer John Macfarlane.
The story begins when Prince Siegfried chances upon a flock of swans while out hunting. When one of the swans turns into a beautiful woman, Odette, he is enraptured. But she is under a spell that holds her captive, allowing her to regain her human form only at night.
Macbeth
4 May 2018, 20.30
Join us at the screening of Phyllida Lloyd’s haunting production of Verdi’s magnificent opera based on Shakespeare’s tragedy.
Verdi’s life-long love affair with Shakespeare’s works began with Macbeth, a play he considered to be ‘one of the greatest creations of man’.
Approximate running time three hours and twenty minutes, including an interval. Sung in Italian with English surtitles.
The Winter’s Tale
13 April 2018, 20.30
Christopher Wheeldon, Artistic Associate of The Royal Ballet, created his adaptation of Shakespeare’s late great romance The Winter’s Tale for The Royal Ballet in 2014. Building on the success of Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Winter’s Tale received ecstatic praise at its premiere, acclaimed by critics and audiences alike for its intelligent, distinctive and emotionally powerful story, told through exquisite dance.
The story follows the destruction of a marriage through consuming jealousy, the abandonment of a child and a seemingly hopeless love. With powerful designs by Bob Crowley and atmospheric music by Joby Talbot, The Winter’s Tale is a masterful modern narrative ballet.
Tosca
9 March 2018, 20.30
Giacomo Puccini’s dramatic work was a hit with audiences on its 1900 premiere and it remains one of the most performed of all operas – and with its gripping plot and glorious music, it’s easy to see why.
The painter Mario Cavaradossi helps a fugitive escape – and so attracts the attention of Scarpia, the sadistic Chief of Police. Scarpia captures Cavaradossi and has him tortured within earshot of his lover, the singer Tosca.
Approximate running time three hours and fifteen minutes, including two intervals. Sung in Italian with English subtitles.
Rigoletto
16 February 2018, 20.30
Rigoletto, court jester to the libertine Duke of Mantua, is cursed by the father of one of the Duke’s victims for his irreverent laughter. When the Duke seduces Rigoletto’s daughter Gilda, it seems the curse is taking effect ...
David McVicar’s production highlights the cruelty at the heart of the court of Mantua. Richly dressed courtiers engage in orgies and revelries to Verdi’s heady, spirited dances. The opera’s many musical highlights include the ebullient La donna è mobile, in which the Duke boasts of his disregard for women; Gilda’s exquisite, plangent duets with Rigoletto and the Duke; and the gorgeous Act III quartet that beautifully weaves the voices together as the story quickens to its shattering conclusion.
Suitable for 15 years+.
Approximate running time two hours and forty five minutes, including an interval. Sung in Italian with English subtitles.
La Bohème
10 & 14 November 2017, 20.30–23.05
Acclaimed director Richard Jones directs a new production of Puccini’s La Bohème. Irresistible in its witty, passionate blend of comedy and tragedy, the opera focusses on the lives of a group of young artists as they eke out an existence on the bohemian fringes of Paris. Jones brings his characteristically acute insight to this much-loved classic, visualized in Stewart Laing’s spectacular, stylized designs.
When Rodolfo, a penniless poet, meets Mimì, a seamstress, they fall instantly in love. But their happiness is threatened when Rodolfo learns that Mimì is gravely ill.
Puccini’s romantic depiction of bohemian Paris, with wonderful music and a love story drawn from everyday life, has captivated audiences around the world, making La Bohème one of the best-loved of all operas.
Approximate running time two hours and thirty five minutes, including an interval. Sung in Italian with English subtitles.
The Magic Flute
13 & 17 October 2017, 20.30–23.40
Mozart’s popular work with its famous Queen of the Night aria delivers a magical adventure through mysticism, enchantment, love and trickery – with some wonderfully humorous moments – through an extraordinary blend of comedy, philosophical seriousness and sheer magic.
The Magic Flute follows the handsome, young prince Tamino as he sets out to rescue the beautiful Pamina at the request of The Queen of the Night. With only his magic flute and cheerful companion Papageno to help him, Tamino sets out, and soon finds himself on a quest searching for love, enlightenment and wisdom.
Set designer, John Macfarlane brings Mozart’s magical opera to life in his designs, from the panoramic night sky to the dancing animals summoned by Tamino’s flute and the incredible flying machine of the Three Boys.
Approximate running time three hours, ten minutes, including an interval. Sung in German with English subtitles.
Otello
14 & 18 July 2017, 20.30–11.15
World-famous tenor Jonas Kaufmann makes his role debut as Otello in Verdi’s passionate retelling of Shakespeare’s great tragedy of jealousy, deception and murder. Soprano Maria Agresta will be his Desdemona and baritone Ludovic Tézier his nemesis Iago in a new production by Olivier Award-winning director Keith Warner.
A major work of the opera repertory, Verdi’s Otello draws on the full forces of the orchestra of the Royal Opera House, the Royal Opera chorus and this stellar line-up of principal singers, with exquisite duets, emotionally potent solo numbers and thrilling choruses. Particular highlights include Otello and Desdemona’s rapturous love duet and Desdemona’s poignant Willow Song. Royal Opera Music Director Antonio Pappano conducts this Italian masterpiece.
Approximate running time two hours, 45 minutes, including an interval and a fifteen-minute introduction. Sung in Italian with English subtitles.
Madama Butterfly
28 April & 2 May 2017, 20.30–11.30
Puccini’s Madama Butterfly is one of the most popular of all operas, with ravishing music and a heartbreaking story of a loving geisha deserted by a callous American husband. Much-loved soprano Ermonela Jaho sings the title role for the first time at Covent Garden in Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier’s stunningly beautiful production.
The exotic imagery of the Nagasaki setting is drawn from 19th century Western artists’ romanticised views of Japan. Puccini’s music brings alive the birdsong of the morning, the ritual of a wedding and the seduction by naval officer B.F. Pinkerton (sung by exciting young tenor Marcelo Puente) of his young, innocent bride.
Royal Opera Music Director Antonio Pappano, acclaimed for his interpretations of Italian opera, conducts this intense and gripping journey from light and excitement to darkness and self-sacrifice.
Approximate running time three hours, including an interval and a fifteen-minute introduction. Sung in Italian with English subtitles.
Il trovatore
3 & 7 March 2017, 20.30–11.30
The first revival of David Bösch’s new production of Verdi’s searing tragic opera, conducted by Richard Farnes. International superstars Vitaliy Bilyy, Anita Rachvelishvili, Lianna Haroutounian and Gregory Kunde lead a superb cast of world-class singers in this Verdi classic.
Il trovatore is one of the great operas of the Romantic period, a story of passion and blood, love and revenge, disaster and murder. New in the 2015–16 Season, this atmospheric and poetic staging by director David Bösch sets the story against a backdrop of war. Fire and snow on the landscape echo the cruelty and passion of the story: soldiers and gypsies clash, a mother reveals a terrible secret and two men are engaged in a deadly fight for one woman.
Approximate running time three hours, including an interval and a fifteen-minutes introduction. Sung in Italian with English subtitles.